Poorly paid teachers work multiple jobs in North Carolina
SHELBY HARRIS, Asheville Citizen Times
July 18, 2021
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ASHEVILLE, N.C. (AP) Half of Olivia Chiavaras’ time is spent across from other people their hands in hers as she trims cuticles and spreads polish over freshly filed fingernails. The other half is spent in a classroom.
Chiavaras’ main job her calling, as she says is as a third grade teacher at North Buncombe Elementary School where she’s been for nine years. Next year, she will shift to teach for the Buncombe County Schools Virtual Academy.
But to pay her mortgage and feed her child, Chiavaras, like so many other North Carolina teachers, has had a second job since she began educating.
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Gov. Roy Cooper took notice of teacher pay discrepancy in his fiscal years 2021-23 budget recommendations.
Cooper proposes the state appropriate $268.9 million in fiscal year 2022 and $439.3 million in fiscal year 2023 in teacher pay “to decrease pay disparity between educators and similarly credentialed and experienced professionals in other fields,” his recommendation states.
“This budget also works to make good on our state’s Constitutional duty to make sure every child has access to a sound basic education,” Cooper said in a press release. “We know how to do that: Attract and keep good teachers with competitive pay and recruit young people to make teaching a career.”